Office life: March 2008 Archives

As I've mentioned in many previous posts, I am a huge sports fan. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I was fairly excited about the start of the NCAA basketball tournament.

I wrote a story for Friday's paper about how March Madness affects workplace productivity. Every year all these studies are published saying companies lose millions because workers aren't doing their jobs.

But what I found was totally different. Turns out people do take their jobs seriously and instead of dedicating the whole day to watching the game, many people will head to a sports bar during their lunch hour or take a half day or use their multitasking skills to check scores and do their work.

Piggybacking on my previous post about why Gen Y doesn't seem to work as hard as our parents, one local company is apparently taking the Gen Y work ethic as a fact of life.

(Basically, to save you a search through the archives, we don't work as hard because big business threw our parents away like they were disposable cans, and both our generation and our parents are worth better)

Johnson Controls, parent company of the former York International, is co-sponsoring a study to see how the company can better cater to this group and retain them as employees. The logic is simple: Older workers retire, and we're all you got left.

See the story here.

What do you think of this move?

Do you have stuff you wish you would have known about the workplace before you got there?

We want to hear about it.

Tell us, in 100 words or less, what you wish someone had told you about bosses, resumes, sick days -- whatever workplace wit or wisdom you have to share. Send your response to mburke@ydr.com. Include your name, age, where you work, the municipality where you live, and a daytime phone number.

Quick look around your office.

Is everyone wearing green? Are you wearing green?

I think it's great how when there is a holiday that is associated with a color that lots of people in the office wear that color to be festive at work. I know that's why I pulled on my green sweater this morning. (And because I got laughed at for not wearing green to the St. Patrick's Day parade this weekend.)

There aren't a ton of people in my department in green, but looking across other departments, people are wearing green beads or shamrock pins and other quirky Irish accessories.

What's the most festive outfit that you've seen at work today? Leave a comment and let me know.

I face real terror every weekday.

And it occurs as the clock approaches 5:30 p.m.

My heart starts to pound, and I wonder how I can possibly get all my work done in time to rush out the door, speed through rush-hour traffic on Route 30 and make it to my daughter's daycare before it closes at 6 p.m.